


a stutter in the heart

by micksgotkicks



Series: five times my writing was better than the magicians [2]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Reunions, and surprise! it's about eliot, margo and q have a talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 17:12:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18319691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/micksgotkicks/pseuds/micksgotkicks
Summary: Eliot is alive and safe, but sometimes it takes a Margo to knock everything into place.





	a stutter in the heart

**Author's Note:**

> i _need_ these two to have a talk because i miss their friendship so much.
> 
> title and lyrics from numb without you by the maine.

_you are the violence in my veins  
you are the war inside my brain_

~

When it’s all over, when all that’s left of the Monster is a shimmering pile of golden dust and Eliot’s deathly silent body, Quentin holds his breath.

Thank whatever the hell put them on this Earth that Margo is there, her face losing its fiery expression and replacing it with something softer, something touched with concern, as she sees Eliot.

She drops her axes to the sand and is by his side in a blink of an eye. She shakes him, cradling his head in her lap.

“El?”

There’s a groan, just loud enough for them to hear, and relief washes through Quentin.

“Bambi?”

Margo grins. “Right here.”

Eliot takes in his surroundings, scanning briefly over Quentin and the others before falling down to his _—the monster’s—_ bloodstained graphic t-shirt.

“What the fuck am I wearing?” he asks, breathlessly, before his head drops back to the sand and his eyes flutter closed.

Penny takes Eliot back to the apartment. Kady and Alice leave without much of a goodbye, obviously still entrenched in the ruthless politics of the Library. 

Julia stays for the first night, but Quentin tells her that she needs to finish what she started, find out how to get her powers back or at the very least, not be immortal anymore. She disappears with Penny that afternoon.

Quentin doesn’t leave Eliot’s side. Margo stays with them, making sure he eats as he stands, or rather, sits, vigil at the end of Eliot’s bed.

It’s been almost 48 hours of Eliot not waking up when Margo breaks the news.

“I have to go back.”

Quentin lifts his head from his hands. “To Fillory?”

Margo nods. “Something’s wrong, Fen and Josh have been sending rabbits like crazy. Things are dying and magic’s fritzing out again, it’s”—she heaves a sigh—“I know I should be here with him...”

“You’re a king, you have responsibilities. I get it, Eliot gets it, probably even more than me.”

Margo quirks a smile. “I wish you’d had a chance to really be a king.”

Quentin frowns at her.

“You were the one who cared so much about Fillory,” she continues. “You’d wanted to go there your whole life.”

“I would’ve fucked it up like I do with everything else.”

Margo scoffs. “Don’t be such a pathetic ballsack, Q. You would’ve done fine, and who knows? Maybe you wouldn’t have been deposed by your own people.”

Quentin looks at his feet. “I know it doesn’t matter what I think, but you’re a good king.”

Margo presses a hand into his, shockingly gentle. “You may not be a chosen one or a high king, but you have a heart like none of us do, and that’s something that’s irreplaceable.”

They sit in companionable silence for a while after that, holding hands like they used to back when they were just Brakebills students and not questers or kings or playthings for the gods.

“When he wakes up, tell him I love him.” Margo breaks the silence and gives Quentin’s hand a final squeeze. “And that I’m going to kick his ass for turning you down. And not telling me, of all things.”

Quentin’s eyes widen. “You didn’t know?”

Margo gives him a wry smile and shakes her head.

It isn’t like they’d had the time to sit down and have a real conversation, between the quest and losing their memory and a monster at the end of the fucking world. Quentin doesn’t know what to do with the information, though, unsure if it makes him feel better or worse or somehow both? He rubs his forehead.

“You’re gonna tell him, right?” Margo’s voice is softer now.

“How can I? He clearly told me he wouldn’t choose me, after a whole lifetime together, which is fine, he shouldn’t feel...” Quentin’s voice cracks. 

“He shouldn’t feel obligated to...to love me if he doesn’t but I...” He forces himself to meet Margo’s gaze. “I love him, and I don’t think my heart can take another rejection. Not after everything we’ve been through.”

Margo purses her lips, looking absolutely deadly. “Listen, Coldwater, Eliot may have been a raging idiot for turning you down, but you’d have to be an even bigger one to not see the way he looks at you, the way he’s always looked at you.”

Quentin wills away the blush forming on his cheeks. “But he—“

“But my metaphorical _dick._ Aren’t you the least bit curious as to why he chose those exact words to prove to you he was actually Eliot and not that fucking monster?”

Quentin is, as much as he doesn’t want to be. It’s all he’s thought about since that day in the park. _Peaches and plums, motherfucker. Peaches and plums, peaches and plums, peachesandplum—_

Margo gets to her feet. “Don’t miss out on something that’s right in front of you just because Eliot cocked out on you last time.”

With a brush of her hand to Quentin’s shoulder, she’s gone.

It takes another four hours for Eliot to wake up.

Quentin is curled around himself in the chair beside his bed, half-reading _Fillory and Further_ and half-staring-at-the-pages-blankly when he sees Eliot shift beneath the blanket.

He drops the book, leaning forward to grasp Eliot’s hand.

“El? Eliot?” His voice sounds cracked and foreign to his own ears.

Suddenly, Eliot’s eyes blink open. He turns his head a fraction, staring at him. Quentin holds his breath.

“Holy _shit,_ Q?”

Eliot breaks out into a grin and Quentin feels a weight has been lifted from his chest.

Without thinking—because who could in this situation? He’d just gotten his best friend back, the father of his kid in another life, the man he is still desperately in love with—Quentin uses his grip on Eliot’s hand to pull him closer and kiss him.

It feels like the first time and the billionth time, and by some twist of cosmic fate, it’s both. Eliot’s fingers curl into his hair and Quentin kisses him like the world is ending.

It’s so different from all the other kisses they’ve shared. It’s more deliberate than their drunken fumbling when they’d been overcome by emotion from the bottling. It’s more definite than when Quentin had leaned in, on their first anniversary of working on the mosaic, and nervously kissed Eliot on the mouth under the glow of the torches. It’s an _I missed you_ and an _I love you_ and an _I won’t let you go_ folded into one, and Quentin feels like he's walking on air.

They’re gasping for breath when they pull apart, and Quentin can feel his heart stuttering wildly. Eliot’s laughing, all soft and beautiful and alive. Quentin flattens his hand against the warmth of Eliot’s chest, feeling the beating of his heart underneath.

“You’re alive," Quentin whispers. "You’re here.”

“I’m here.” Eliot cups his face, running his thumb along Quentin’s lower lip. “And I was supposed to kiss you first.”

Quentin leans into the touch. “Well, you can kiss me now.”

And Eliot does. 

There’s still so much to talk about, so much left unsaid, so many struggles they still need to face, but it doesn’t matter. Eliot’s alive and they’re wrapped around each other, and for right now, that’s more than enough.

~

_you are my glitter and my gloom  
i am so numb without you_

**Author's Note:**

> i've gotten such an amazing response to this series on both here and tumblr and i appreciate it so much! thank you for all the comments/kudos/likes!
> 
> hmu on tumblr at [lovelyquentin](https://lovelyquentin.tumblr.com/) if you have any queliot reunion prompts you want me to write because i am a romantic hoe above all.


End file.
